To set out (a table), to spread (the cloth), place in order (the plates, dishes, knives and forks, etc.) in preparation for a meal; hence, in later…

transitive. Often in passive. To set food, cutlery, crockery, and other items on (a table, board, etc.) in preparation for a meal. Also with with…

To make (a table) ready for a meal, spread (a table) with food, etc.

transitive. To place food on (a table, plate, etc.) ready for people to eat.

To put a covering of some specified kind on. To spread a cloth or the like over the upper surface of (a table); esp. in preparation for a meal, to…

To lay (a cloth); = sense 35b. Obsolete.

transitive. Used causatively or by mistake for lay, v.1 Now rare.

In wider sense (chiefly U.S. colloquial): To arrange, get ready, put in order; to put to rights, make tidy, ‘rig up’; spec. to prepare (food or…